Monday, September 21, 2009

Where's the Steel and Arsenic?

William Shawcross is out with a new glowing book about the Queen Mother. The Queen Mother was once described as having "a touch of arsenic in the marshmallow". While there is reportedly much that is new in this official biography of our late Empress, Shawcross's portrait is apparently almost entirely marshmallow and no arsenic. I have not read it, only sought out the toughest review I could find and came up with this lovely little critique, which, while much tougher on the Queen Mum, did even more to elevate my respect.

Shawcross-W_Queen-Elizabeth
Michael Thornton, author of Royal Feud: The Queen Mother And The Duchess Of Windsor, says that Shawcross, in his efforts to do justice to her legend, "has converted a vivid, enigmatic and fascinating woman into a plaster-cast effigy". According to Thornton, "the eternally benevolent figure that emerges from Shawcross's bland pages is not the feisty, steely, stubborn Scot whose seemingly imperturbable outward calm rallied the nation during the darkest days of the Blitz." Behind the great abundance of charm there was an extremely ruthless and shrewd nature to the Queen Mother that the book apparently goes out of its way to overlook.
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3 comments:

  1. Sir Edward HeathSeptember 22, 2009 at 12:30 PM

    Trust you to seek a ruthless streak in someone. Now who would have thought that. Hee! Hee! Hee!

    You see, the clue is in Thornton's book title - "Royal Feud". He is clearly someone who is on the look out for more Royal feud details (in other words discord and trouble). Some very, very unkind person might even suggest that Thornton is upset because he was not personally Chosen by The Queen to write The Official Biography of The Queen Mother. Remember, the media, republicans and many in modern British society are quite unhappy unless there is "a ding dong" going on or some other public slanging match. That is why soap operas are so very popular. Now, call me old fashioned, but I do prefer a Royal Family as opposed to a soap opera. Though, thanks in the main to media, I admit it's been difficult telling the difference over these past twenty years. Hee! Hee! Hee!

    For The Queen Mother made it clear she does not like dirty laundry laundered in public. She also did not like The Liberal Democrats, thought "the T" was wonderful, and was most concerned about post-war Jewish power (particularly media power) in Britain. This merely means, rather like that dear old chap Neil, she was quite harmless - a marshmallow filled with jam. You either swallow Her whole or appreciate Her from a distance, because you might find Her most disagreeable if you had to swallow Her whole. Hee! Hee! Hee!

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  2. The MonarchistSeptember 23, 2009 at 3:02 PM

    No point in glossing over the good stuff. The Queen Mother's inner steel and arsenic were undoubtedly two of her finest qualities.

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  3. '99 Referendum VeteranSeptember 30, 2009 at 11:04 PM

    It's not a bad read, but I'm reading Alan Clark's new biography at the same time, which is more entertaining.

    Last week I caught Jane Clark on BBC1 Breakfast while I was in the UK - she was very stoic about so much dirty laundry being aired in the book...

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